


I Think It Was the Fourth of July

by NellieOleson



Category: Stargate SG-1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-30
Updated: 2012-03-30
Packaged: 2017-11-02 18:01:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/371801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NellieOleson/pseuds/NellieOleson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post the episode where RepliCarter escapes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Think It Was the Fourth of July

  


The rain fell in sheets, thick and cold in the fading light. Sam stared at the windshield. Everything beyond the tempered safety glass was being wiped out of existence by the heavy rainfall. The swings had been the last to go. She'd watched them blow in the wind until the world was completely washed away. The sound of the rain beating on the car was a steady and wild white noise. Sam couldn't remember the last time it had rained with such intensity. It hadn't been too bad when she left the mountain. The skies had grown steadily darker while she made her escape but the rain had been nothing more than a gloomy afterthought. She'd been in the parking lot for an hour before the storm really started to get down to business.

She didn't see him coming. Even if she had been looking, her view was cut off by the rain outside and the fog inside. She'd thought about opening a window but decided against it. The isolation was comforting. She was only mildly surprised when the door opened. "You should really keep your doors locked, Carter." He slipped into the passenger seat bringing a healthy serving of the outside with him. The wave of fresh air felt good in her lungs. She stared at him for a minute. Watched the water run down his neck and soak into his collar. His clothes were dark with rain and clung to him like a scared child. He could have been outside for an hour or a minute. She didn't know and she really didn't care.

She resumed her contemplation of the windshield and wished he would just go away. It was a child's thought. A spoiled child's thought. Was that what she had become? Always demanding to get her way no matter what? And he just kept looking the other way, the enamored parent unable to see what a selfish brat their child had become. "How did you find me?" And why. Why couldn't he just leave her the fuck alone.

He didn't bother with an answer. It didn't matter anyway. She could have picked a place he didn't know to sulk. Maybe she wanted him to find her. "It wasn't your fault, Carter," he said.

That was a lie. It was completely her fault. She'd pushed for it. Her ego had convinced her she could handle the situation, mitigate the risk. Her ego had been horribly wrong. She'd unleashed a vindictive, human-form replicator, immune to their only effective weapon, on the galaxy. She'd shared her research with it, shared her damn mind with it. Right. Not her fault. Who was he trying to convince? "Your opinion isn't exactly objective."

His reaction to that was everything it should have been. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Good. Anger she could deal with. She deserved it. It was his first appropriate reaction to the whole situation.

"It's not supposed to _mean_ anything," she said. Was it? Did she really want to head down that dark alley? No, she thought, she had enough on her plate today. That conversation could wait another four years. "Why are you here?"

He looked away from her, turned his head toward the side window like he could see anything other than his own condensed breath on the glass. "I was worried about you," he said quietly.

She knew that. Worrying was what Jack did. He wasn't General O'Neill today. Sam always thought of him as Jack when she was particularly disappointed in herself. Just another friendly reminder of her shortcomings. Her inability to become more than the sum of her female parts. She'd seen other women fall for their superiors. It never ended well. At least not well according to Sam's standards because the only easy way out of that mess was for someone to quit, to move on, change careers, give up on their life's work. And inevitably, that someone was the female half of the inappropriate relationship. And now, here she was, living the nightmare and pretending she wasn't. She was pretty sure she was failing at the pretending too. They weren't fooling anyone and they both knew it. Again, it got overlooked, swept under the rug as long as they kept up the facade and did their jobs. Only now the facade had worn thin and maybe they weren't doing so great at the job part either because he'd just let her make the biggest mistake of her career, maybe her life, because he couldn't say no to her. And she knew it.

"It's not your job to worry about me." That's right, it was Pete's job. Good old Pete. Maybe he knew too. It was, as her father would say, his job to sniff out the truth mixed in the bullshit. Pete was smart, smart enough to realize she was in love with someone else, but maybe not smart enough to cut his losses and run while he had the chance. Because, in the end, she'd wind up hurting him too.

Jack put one hand in his hair while the other tapped nervously on his thigh. Maybe nervously was the wrong word, he was probably just trying to keep his hands too busy to strangle her. He didn't look angry, or nervous though, just resigned and worn out. Maybe it just occurred to him what a colossal waste of energy the past four years had been. Christ, they were so screwed. And now, thanks to her, the rest of the galaxy was screwed right along with them.

"You're right, Carter. It's not my job anymore." He opened the door and got one leg out before she decided she didn't really want him to go after all. She grabbed his arm before he could extricate himself from her car. Jack stopped and stared at her, waiting. Sam waited too. She watched the rain run down the inside of the door, wondering what she should do next. Jack knew what to do. He shut the door and peeled her hand away from his arm. He didn't give it back to her. He just sat for a moment, holding her hand in his lap and staring down at their entwined fingers like he expected them to do something amazing at any moment. "This isn't about the replicator, is it?" He asked.

It was and it wasn't. The two things were inseparable. One wouldn't have been an issue without the other. If anyone else had wanted to invite a human form replicator to the Alpha Site, Jack would have told them they were out of their fucking mind. "No," she admitted. "Not entirely." Sam paused, continuing this conversation was dangerous. "This," she looked down at their hands, "is interfering with our jobs." It wasn't exactly news but it wasn't something she thought either of them would ever say out loud. "It affects your decisions and I let it." Used it, really.

"I know." His grip tightened. "I know it does." Of course he did. Sam started to feel less sorry for herself because the anguish in Jack's eyes was shining through loud and clear. His air of nonchalance had begun to fool even her.

"I'm thinking of putting in for a transfer," she said. She hadn't been really, until just now. Still, it was best thing for both of them. There were plenty of opportunities out there for her. Any research facility would be thrilled to have her. She could even go to the Alpha Site, her knowledge would be especially useful there. Jack, on the other hand, had a much more limited skill set. There just weren't that many command positions to be had. They both knew that.

"I don't think your commanding officer will approve a transfer, Carter." He gave her hand back and turned toward her. "You're too important to the program." Jack reached out and put his hand on her cheek. It was cold and damp and somehow exhilarating. "I've still got options." He didn't elaborate and he got out of the car before she could say anything else.

Sam sat for another twenty minutes, replaying the conversation in her head and slowly getting past the anger she'd cooked up for herself. Dwelling on either wasn't helpful and wouldn't change anything. Things would work out or they wouldn't. She started the car and waited for the fog to clear from the windows. Maybe the replicators wouldn't take over the galaxy and maybe Jack really did have career options that would keep him out of the daily decision making at the SGC. Stranger things had happened thought Sam as she pulled out of the parking lot and headed home.


End file.
